Very late discovery last year but what a stunning find....

While the Alabama Shakes started my year with some top notch americana, Phantom Limb have possibly topped it with The Pines

Whereas Brittany Howard is more Janis Joplin, Yolanda Quartey is channelling Etta James over some gorgeous southern' R&B with more than a touch of soul

Hard to believe this band is from Bristol when dobro, swirling Hammond organ and banjo form the soundtrack.

Some songs like Laugh Like You're Mad have the sound of early Eagles pre checking into the hotel while Tumbling Down is achingly beautiful

Produced by Marc Ford of the Black Crowes this is an album you should really search out

Time to look back over the last 12 months are decide on the albums that rocked and rolled....

So here it is, the top 10 in alphabetical order.

• Alabama Shakes - Boys and Girls
• Alcest - Le Voyage De L'Ame
• Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
• Crippled Black Phoenix - (Mankind) The Crafty Ape
• Crippled Black Phoenix - No Sadness Or Farewell
• Dead Can Dance - Anastasis
• Eden House - Timeflows EP
• Marillion - Sounds That Can't Be Made
• Phantom Limb - The Pines (review coming soon...)
• Smoke Fairies - Blood Speaks

In addition the best live release would be Fields Of The Nephilim - Ceremonies

Well I stopped subscribing to Classic Rock probably about 18 months ago but I've just picked up the Christmas edition just to have a look at the 50 albums of the year.

Now normally I find I've only purchased two maybe three of their top tips but this year I got a whole five!

No. 44 Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls (reviewed on this blog in May)

No. 42 Killing Joke - MMXXII

No. 35 Crippled Black Phoenix - (Mankind) the Crafty Ape

No. 30 Marillion - Sounds That Can't Be Made (reviewed on this blog in October)

No. 10 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Last Of A Dying Breed (reviewed on this blog in December)

Out of the five, the Skynyrd album is the one I rate least but I'm guessing it's high placing has a lot to do with the fact that Classic Rock released it as a fan pack.... Cynical or not ???



(Still can't believe I forgot to review the Killing Joke and Crippled Black Phoenix albums...)

And here comes another quick sprint through the albums I didn't remember to write about....


Dead Can Dance- Anastasis.
A beautiful album displaying two distinct types of vocal. For the female led tracks, it's like the high priestess of ancient Sumeria calling you to prayer over swirling middle eastern rhythms. Utterly hypnotic. The male vocals are more Scott Walker and a bit more of an acquired taste.
There are individual tracks but the album lulls you a trance like state so titles are meaningless.
A unique and mesmerising piece of work


Lynyrd Skynyrd - Last Of a Dying Breed
Forget dying, this album suggest dead. After God and Guns (their best album since the 70's) this is a tepid affair lacking ideas and some terrible cliched lyrics.
Poor Man's Dream and Something to Live For are some of the most uninspired Skynyrd I've heard. The title track isn't bad and a couple of bonus live tracks mean it doesn't end on a low.
The Classic Rock magazine the album came with is very good though !


Seth Lakeman  - Tales From The Barrel House.
A return to the folk of Kitty Jay after the more glossy rock sounding Poor Man's Heaven.
Seth plays all the instruments and there's a concept with the tracks all about tradesman. Blacksmiths Prayer and Brothers of Penryn are top notch folk songs but there is a  major problem.....
I actually prefer the glossy rock sound of Poor Man's Heaven


Hussey-Regan- Curios.
A covers album by the lead singers of The Mission and All About Eve respectively. Some covers work and some don't but that's the nature of these albums. Witchita Linesman is lovely and really benefits from the duet format. A speeded up version of Ordinary World from Duran Duran also works but Ashes to Ashes is a bit of a mess. There are a couple of new compositions of which Regan's Dangerous Eyes is the best. 
An intriguing album at best but anything featuring these two vocalists is worth a listen.

So the plan was to review all new albums I bought this year and I've failed that in some style......
Even avoiding the buying of reissues, I'm still a bit behind, so here's a whirlwind review of those I missed:


Enslaved - Riitir.
More brutal Scandinavian metal. Some concessions to melody and the the occasional clean vocal but really just pummelling heaviness to annoy your neighbours with. The lengthy Death in the Eyes Of Dawn is a pretty good summary of the album

Rosa Rebecka - Songs For Mrs Beautiful
Gentle folk with a Scandinavian lilt including some sung in Swedish. Nothing spectacular but if you need a break from making your ears bleed with Slayer then the title track and Heartful of Seaweed make a pleasant distraction

Egbert Derix - Paintings In Minor Lila.
I'm not sure the world was screaming out for a Dutchman to cover lots of Marillion songs on a grand piano and string quartet. Not as odd as it sounds and both Fish and Steve Hogarth lend spoken parts. However, not even a Marillion masochist needs 3 classical variations on Marbles I though.....

Smoken - Spoonful Of Stars.
One of the greatest wasted talents ever. Lauren Smoken has a voice to shame Janis Joplin but insists on singing self penned songs which sound like the wine bar blues Gary Moore was peddling in the 90's. A complete waste of an amazing voice

Lydia Loveless - Indestructible Blues.
Like a runaway female Georgia Satellites, this album is was brought up on banjos, moonshine and rednecks. Some fantastic rollicking country rock such as the tracks Bad Way To Go and Do Right. And it's always a pleasure to hear a woman not afraid to let rip with some industrial language

Insomnium - One For Sorrow.
Probably the best of the five albums here. This time Finnish death metal which makes greater use of melody and clean vocals than Enslaved. The use of more than one vocalist and keyboards makes this a standout record in an already crowded Scandinavian metal market. The opening salvo of the instrumental Inertia followed by Through The Shadow is the highlight of the album

Very rarely do a band release a great album in a year only to top within 12 months but Crippled Black Phoenix are becoming the masters of this trick. Their latest offering No Sadness Or Farewell is a masterpiece.

It starts off with a 12 minute instrumental called How We Rock which is simply the best thing they have ever recorded. Starting off slowly with some oriental theme going on in the background it breaks into a guitar solo Dave Gilmour would be proud of. The song almost stops, and then the guitar picks out a naggingly repetitive motif before the piano and then drums join in and all the while gently building and increasing the tension. It's like Tubular Bells with added balls - cymbals are added, power chords, choral backing and still it builds. Over 4 minutes to go and there are even real bloody tubular bells joining in now. Listening to this through headphones on heavyweight vinyl is just awesome as the whole thing reaches a crescendo before letting you down gently and leaving you with the ringing bells.

There are other tracks but you need to breathe and relax after that opener. Hold On (So Goodbye To All Of That) starts like U2 at their most pretentious before deciding to end the song an an accapella crowd sing along.

Jonestown Martin is just indescribable really - Heavy guitar, synths effects stolen from Hawkwind and according to the sleeve notes 'Monk Voices' !!

It all ends with Long Live Independence a galloping rocker very similar to Laying Traps from the last album (which was good enough to nominated in the Prog Magazine awards recently)

This is a band so full of invention and variety that they deserve so much more than to be adored as cult heroes by those who dare to try. This is the real Prog for the new age and not the tepid outpouring of one Mr S Wilson

How We Rock - indeed......

One of this year's easiest reviews - Doro has released her latest offering and it's called Raise Your Fist

And it sounds EXACTLY like a Doro album..... Grab yourself a studded leather wristband, throw some devil horns and just pretend grunge never happened.

Details are really superfluous but let's see - Track featuring Lemmy? Check. Power Ballad sung in German? Check. Terrible track titles? Check (Little Headbanger and Rock Till Death being great examples)

To be fair the power ballad Engel is fantastic song and the album overall is a big dumb slab of enjoyable metal.

The art work below is just a joy to look at !